Remind me again......

i was told only to eat hard cheeses, like your colby, edam, tasty

I thought it was ok if they are pasteurised but to avoid brie, camembert, blue cheese as the bacteria that is used in these can cause probs. I just looked on the Food safey website and this is what they say about cheese.

"Dairy products
Dairy products (milk, cheese, butter, yoghurt) are important sources of protein and calcium in pregnancy and their consumption is encouraged. Commercially produced New Zealand and imported dairy products are pasteurised and this kills any pathogens in the raw product. However, after opening these products, there is potential for contamination by pathogens that may lead to illness. Listeria can grow at refrigeration temperature to numbers that can result in an infection. For this reason, dairy products should be kept well covered to prevent contamination. They should ideally be consumed within two days of opening, or used in cooked foods after that two-day period. All soft cheeses (including brie, camembert, blue, ricotta, mozzarella) should be purchased in small quantities and eaten immediately after opening the sealed pack. Pregnant women should not eat leftover soft cheeses.

Raw milk and raw milk products (such as unpasteurised milk drunk on the farm and home-made cheeses made from unpasteurised farm milk) should be avoided."
      

They say that most pasteurised cheese made in NZ is fine. I think it comes down to a personal choice after that. I have chosen not to eat any of them, pasteurised or not for a couple of reasons - firstly, I have seen many pallets of food that should be refidgerated sitting outside supermarkets in loading docks waiting for them to get round to putting them inside. Secondly, they do not always travel in refridgerated trucks. Thrdly, on another site one of the girls hubbies works in some sort of food handling industry to do with cheese and while they might be safe when they are made, he does not think it is true that they are safe by the time they get to the consumer - some of what he does includes testing at different times and he won't let his wife eat any of them while pregnant.

Now I hope that doesn't sound like a scary rant! Just wanted to say why I have made my decision - I find that everyone has their own food peculiarites and we all eat slightly different things going by what we believe!

I personally avoid unpasteurised and mould ripened cheeses (eg brie, blue vein etc). Think its another one of those debatable 'use your own discretion' things that plague us during pregnancy.